Corporate End Users Disdainful to IT Security

A recent study of experiences and perceptions of online security threats by users of corporate computers showed that they are careless about the IT security within their organizations. Such is the observation according to a new report that security firm Trend Micro has prepared.

The research collected viewpoints of 1,200 corporate PC users across the U.S, the U.K, Germany and Japan. According to the research, digital threats grew 163 percent over the period spanning December 2005-November 2006. Web threats increased by 540 percent over two years from January 2005 to January 2007.

Meanwhile, the key findings of the report show that in Japan the level of awareness for spyware rose considerably from 76 percent in 2005 to 93 percent in 2007. In the U.S. the number of people facing spyware came down by 41 percent in 2005. In Germany, this was 23 percent in 2005 while it lowered to 19 percent in 2007. And in the U.K, it stood at 42 percent in 2005 that came down to 26 percent in 2007.

Users in general are most aware of spam viruses and spyware. However, 40 percent of respondents in the countries surveyed pointed to have received larger amounts of spam over April 2007-June 2007.

Although end users in some countries realize the severity of threats, still they tend to take the risk of opening suspicious files or clicking on dubious links when they work on corporate computers. Trend Micro attributes this to the dependence on support groups in the large company ambiance.

The security firm also found that users have an attitude of lower responsibility for security at workplace rather than when they use their home computers.

In its concluding part, the report urges for continued training of PC users in corporate especially for efforts to educate them about protection from the increasing number and sophistication of phishing and spam scams.

Attacks with spam and phishing e-mails become successful when potential victims click on the embedded links to sites hosting spyware or other malicious code. Infections via this method are serious threats because they help attackers to steal victims' personal and corporate information.